Strategic Category Manager

Location: Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch

Alexander James are excited to have partnered with Health New Zealand/Te Whatu Ora to build a nationally connected health system designed to deliver better outcomes for all New Zealanders.

Health NZ manages more than $9 billion of annual spend across one of the most complex and important supply environments in the country. We are now looking for experienced Strategic Category Managers to help shape the future of commercial and category management across the health system.

These opportunities sit within one of five key category towers:

• Indirect Products and Services 
• Outsourced Clinical Services 
• Clinical Equipment and Consumables
• Infrastructure
• Data & Digital

This is not a traditional sourcing role. We are looking for commercially minded category leaders who can step back from individual tenders and create long-term category strategies that drive value, innovation, supplier performance and better healthcare outcomes nationally.

You will own the end-to-end strategic direction for your category area — partnering with senior operational, clinical and executive stakeholders to influence how Health NZ approaches procurement, supplier partnerships, demand management and commercial delivery.

You will be expected to:

• Develop and execute enterprise-level category strategies
• Analyse markets, supplier ecosystems and spend data to identify opportunities and risks
• Lead complex commercial negotiations and strategic supplier engagements
• Drive value creation, innovation and operational improvement
• Influence senior stakeholders across a large and complex environment
• Align commercial activity to Health NZ’s long-term strategic priorities
• Support nationally led, regionally delivered operating models
• Build strong supplier relationships that improve service delivery and patient outcomes

To succeed in this role, you will bring:

• Significant experience developing and implementing category strategies
• 5+ years in category management, 10+ years in procurement 
• Strong commercial acumen and strategic thinking capability
• Experience within health, government, infrastructure, technology or large enterprise environments will be highly regarded
• Experience managing complex supplier and stakeholder environments
• Ability to work out of Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch offices

This is an opportunity to work on procurement and commercial challenges that genuinely matter.

Health NZ offers:

• Flexible working arrangements
• National career pathways
• Large-scale strategic commercial challenges
• Meaningful work that impacts communities across Aotearoa
• Opportunities to influence system-wide outcomes

For more information, click apply or email a CV to tom@alexanderjames.co.nz